Hayden’s Haven

by Cohen, Julie K.

  Shifters screamed and darted out of Hayden’s way as he charged at Lars. He hadn’t shifted yet, not fully. Just his claws, which were presently wrapped around Lar’s throat as he threw him to the ground and kneeled on his chest. Ribs cracks beneath his weight.

  “Where is she? What have you done to her?” Hayden growled out the words, the rage coursing through his body made speech difficult, but not impossible. He was going to get his answers one way or another.

  In his peripheral vision, he could see shifters moving around him, but they were smart enough not to approach. At this moment, with Damien not present, Hayden was their alpha and they didn’t dare interfere.

  Hayden’s hand tightened around the shifter’s throat as a pair of boots appeared behind the shifter’s head. Hayden didn’t need to look up to know Frank stood there.

  “He’s turning blue, Hayden,” Frank said with a casualness that would normally make him laugh, if the situation weren’t so serious.

  “Good,” Hayden ground out.

  “No use to you if he’s dead.”

  Hell. Hayden eased up, and Lars inhaled a deep breath. The bruises on the shifter’s neck reminded him of the bruises that he had left on Mila. Hayden had been too rough with her, without realizing it, and she had never said a word. She knew she’d be bruised the next morning, that his level of roughness had been meant for a strong shifter. He had never once considered she was anything but. Was this what she had been talking about, about weak shifters knowing their place? That abuse was rampant and accepted?

  Hayden released the shifter and stood up. Lars remained plastered to the snow. He knew Hayden could and likely would end him if he dared move.

  “Do you know where Mila is?” Frank asked as Hayden tried to make sense of what was happening.

  “No,” the shifter rasped.

  “Why does our second think you do?”

  Our second. He still had Frank’s respect, even though he didn’t deserve it. “I jumped to a wrong conclusion,” Hayden said as he paced in front of Lars. “He had followed her home last night after she’d rebuffed him.”

  Mila’s scent wasn’t on Lars, and Lars was not a trained fighter like Robbie was. Even if Robbie had been taken by surprise, there would be no way a weak shifter like Lars could have killed him.

  Hayden extended his hand down to Lars. “I’m not thinking straight,” he said. It wasn’t the best apology, but it was all he could manage. Mila was gone, and they had no idea who had taken her or which direction they’d gone.

  Lars extended a shaky hand and allowed Hayden to pull him up. The crowd that had gathered parted to let Hayden through. No one wanted to risk his wrath. They feared him, and with good reason. It was time to stop hiding from who and what he was.

  Callen approach, as did Frank. “A white wolf was spotted coming from Liam’s property around dinner time. The guard on perimeter lost the scent in the storm.”

  “Why am I just hearing about this now?”

  “The guard is one of the new shifters we accepted into the pack. Ethan. He ignored protocol because he thought it was a single wolf simply off-course in the storm. My fault, Hayden. I should have trained him better,” Frank said.

  Laying blame wouldn’t help Mila. And certainly not Robbie. It was a white wolf, that’s all Hayden needed to know.

  Damien approached and held up his hand before Hayden could speak. “Callen already filled me in. White wolf killed Robbie, took Mila.”

  “Vance,” Hayden said.

  “Drake,” Damien said at the same time.

  “Hell.” That was from Frank.

  “Which one? Too much snow and wind,” Callen said. “There’s no trail and the entry point is due east. The shifter could have gone north or south. Or returned east, for all we know.”

  “Not likely. There are no white wolves in Liam’s pack or direction. Coming through Liam’s territory to enter from the east, where we’re weakest along the border, was risky. He won’t return that way,” Damien added. “Either way, we’re looking at invading either Truman’s or Drake’s pack to get her back. We can’t split our forces and go in two directions, not without pulling shifters from protecting the pack. I won’t leave our pack vulnerable.”

  “Liam’s pack is still being held hostage,” Frank reminded them. “That’s why this wolf came through there. He could have returned that way.”

  Damien shook his head. “Doubtful. With all those DSA agents along the border, he’d be a fool to return with a kidnapped victim who could be fighting him, causing a commotion and drawing attention to him.”

  “If he hasn’t already hurt her,” Frank added. “Sorry, Hayden, but she was taken from here and no one heard her.”

  Hayden bent over, hands on knees, and focused on breathing. This couldn’t be happening, but it was. He had promised Mila that she’d be safe here. Now she was either with that abusive ex or Drake who wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.

  “It’s not Drake,” Hayden said. “He has no reason to take Mila. Wouldn’t even know who she is.”

  “Are you underestimating him after all these years? Perhaps you don’t know the level of hatred he has for you,” Damien said.

  “I know exactly how he feels about me, and it’s not all undeserved. But he hasn’t been here since she arrived, and he has no reason to think she’s here or that she means anything to me. Vance was obsessed with her. He took her.”

  “Possibly, but it doesn’t change our situation. We don’t have enough shifters to go after Mila and Drake, Hayden. We have to choose. And I’m sorry, but it has to be Drake. Vance won’t kill Mila.”

  “You don’t know that!”

  “She’s strong. She’ll hold on as long as she has to.”

  “That’s just it, Damien. She isn’t strong.” Hell, did he just say that? Did he actually say his Mila wasn’t strong? No wonder she was afraid to tell him. He may have not actively said anything against weak shifters, he was as conditioned as she was to think weak abilities meant weak mind, heart, and soul.

  Tess was right. The damn terms, the whole damn system of referring to someone as a strong or weak shifter had to go. His Mila had weak abilities, but she wasn’t weak in any other sense of the word. She was as strong in heart and spirit as anyone Hayden had ever known, stronger considering what she had survived.

  Hell. . . Hayden had pushed her away, disposed of her like she had no worth, like the past few weeks with her, the touches, the intimacy, the laughter, had meant nothing at all. Now she was in the hands of a maniac, a shifter who’d make her suffer and then probably kill her.

  “We don’t split our forces,” Hayden said, the answer coming to him. “You need to send as many shifters as you can to Montana. From what Truman said, he’s reinforced his borders and it will be a hell of a fight getting in to find her.”

  “That’s if she’s there at all. My guess is Drake,” Damien said. “You’re too close to consider your brother as an option, but hell, Hayden, with everything else that’s happened with the DSA taking Liam’s pack hostage and the mass murders committed with the HEV, my instincts tell me Drake has her. This is just one more twisted attempt to lure you to him. We have to take as many shifters as we can to Drake’s pack. We’ll find her there and get Drake at the same time.

  “And if she’s up North? She won’t last long with a shifter we beat up and humiliated on account of her. He’ll kill her, Damien. I can’t take that risk, and I can’t get in there alone.

  “What are you saying?”

  “You take as many shifters as we can spare from the pack and go North. I’m going to challenge Drake. One way or another, I will stop my brother from hurting anyone else.”

  Damien nodded.

  “Bring my girl home for me, Damien. I’m counting on you.”

  “Done. Just try to stay alive, Hayden. I really don’t want to have to break in a new second.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  MILA

  Vance shoved Mila into a bank of snow. “Stay there
,” he ordered.

  Mila was cold, wet, and bruised. Once they’d cleared Damien’s territory, Vance had taken his anger out on her. ‘For the beating I received in your lover’s pack’, he had said. There was always an excuse. If Hayden were here. . . No, she couldn’t think like that. He wasn’t here, and he wasn’t coming for her. No one was. She needed to be smart about what she did, namely not cause any trouble while she looked for a way to escape.

  A man Mila didn’t recognize emerged from the cover of the trees. He was tall, with blonde hair like Vance’s except it was thick and wavy. His muscles were nothing to laugh at either. The only oddity was the missing pinkie on his left hand.

  “Like what you see, sweet thing?” the shifter asked when he caught her looking at him.

  Mila quickly averted her eyes.

  “How much for her, Vance?”

  “Vance, no!” Mila shouted, but neither of them even bothered looking at her. She was nothing more than a prize, goods to be sold. That’s all she’d ever been, a commodity. Except to Hayden. He had cared about her, truly cared about her, and she hadn’t had the courage to trust him with the truth.

  “She’s not for sale, Travis.”

  Vance hadn’t even growled. This shifter, whoever he was, was familiar to him and not a threat.

  “Not even for the position as second?” Travis asked, his eyes washing over Mila once again. “Think about it, we could be together again, like old times.”

  “My situation has changed. I’m already second. Our second didn’t survive the virus. Never quite got the warning to stay away when the virus hit.”

  Travis grinned. “Quite convenient.”

  “You know, it really was. Sometimes things just fall into place. I mean, removing the posted quarantine signs before he returned was so simple. No blood on my hands. After that, I got to stay inside and fuck my girl until she snuck off when I was sleeping. Dumb bitch went to treat some of the sick and ended up getting sick with the virus herself. I had to take off for a week until the virus had run its course through the camp. Nothing to do but drink and find some human sluts in town. Boring as hell. The moment you put one of those females in her place, they go running to the police accusing you of battery or some such shit. Too much trouble.”

  Vance ran his hand down Mila’s hair, wrapping it around his hand and pulling it hard. She yelped. “This one I have trained. She’s not much trouble, usually. Though I think she picked up some bad habits fucking a shifter at Black’s pack.”

  “Which one?” Travis asked.

  “Hayden.”

  “This could work out really well,” Travis said with a haunting grin.

  Vance had that glint in his eye, the one that always made Mila shudder within. “That’s why I brought her here. Of all the shifters to fuck, she picked him.”

  “Killing the humans in those two towns didn’t work. The government’s too scared to enter this deep into the forest.”

  “They’re holding Greyson’s pack hostage demanding Black turn over the shifter responsible.” Vance laughed. “Hayden told them it was Drake. Ratted out his own brother.”

  “Doesn’t surprise me. You were right to bring her if you think it will draw Hayden here.”

  “Oh, it will,” Vance said. “If you fucked her, you’d know why.”

  “Good. Drake doesn’t think straight when it comes to his brother.” Travis walked over to Mila, grabbed her by the chin and thrust her head back. “How about renting her to me for a bit when we’re done?”

  Mila pulled her head away. Travis chuckled. “Spirited. I like that.”

  Vance stood there looking down on her, his arms crossed over his chest. “Hear that, Mila? If you don’t start obeying me, you’ll get more than a fist to your face.”

  “Or we could share her. Have a grand celebration just the three of us.” Travis elbowed Vance in his side. “Come on, Van. Old time’s sake. Or I’ll get another piece of ass in here for you, one that won’t complain about a little pain, while I have fun with green-eyes here.”

  The set to Vance’s face eased as he put an arm around Travis’s shoulders. “I have a better idea. I want to get back to my pack so my alpha can have an accident. You can keep her while I’m gone. Keep her busy, teach her to appreciate me.”

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about.” Travis squeezed Mila’s breast and she clamped her eyes shut.

  “Now let’s figure out how to give Damien Black exactly what he wants,” Vance said as he hoisted Mila to her feet and they continued walking through the woods.

  * * *

  HAYDEN

  “Why are you here instead of Frank,” Hayden asked Callen as they neared the southern border. Hayden hadn’t questioned Callen when he had shown up to accompany him, as his mind was on Mila. He had considered turning around and going north instead, sneaking into her pack and stealing her back while Damien and their forces headed south to overtake Drake. It would have kept Hayden away from Drake, from potentially having to kill his own brother, but this plan had the best chance of succeeding for all.

  Damien could speak with Truman first, as the two alphas got along for the most part. If that didn’t work, Damien would have the shifters he needed to go in and rescue her by force. Truman’s new shifters were lone wolves from other packs who would not have had the training or time to learn to fight as a unit yet.

  Every time Damien and Hayden accepted a new wolf into the pack, it took on average three to six months for the shifter to learn the territory as well as the rules. Every pack had their own system, their own routines, but the hardest part of joining a new pack was learning the personalities and making those friendships that bonded another shifter to you to the point that they’d risk themselves for you. Wolves without those bonds turned away from a deadly fight too easily. That’s what made Truman’s pack weak for the time being, unlike Drake’s pack that had worked together for generations. Drake had his share of screwups and lazy shifters to contend with, but the pack knew how to fight as a unit when needed. Damien’s shifters never would have reached Drake. But Drake would let Hayden enter.

  “Damien was so impressed with how well we worked together last time he thought I’d be a better back up for you.”

  “Bullshit. I do just as well with Frank.”

  Callen sighed. “Fine. Kate sweet-talked him into having me go because she’s worried about you.”

  “And Drake.”

  “And Drake. Actually, she was sweet-talking Damien into letting her come and he was about to say yes.”

  Hayden raised a brow.

  “Okay, Tess and Kate together almost convinced him to say yes.”

  “These women sure know how to join forces when they want something.”

  “I don’t want her near Drake,” Callen said, not sounding the least bit happy. “Kate is still too innocent, too forgiving when it comes to Drake.”

  That didn’t surprise Hayden. Drake had always had a soft spot for Kate as kids, and apparently she had one for Drake too. On the other hand, he wondered if Kate saw something in him the rest of the world couldn’t see, including Hayden. She hadn’t known some of the things Drake had done when Drake had befriended her a few years back, as adults this time.

  Kate hadn’t known who Drake was at the time, but Hayden would bet his life that Drake sure knew who Kate was. His brother was good at getting information on people. He’d taken the Novak family business—spying on humans—and built it into something their grandfather Jacob would praise if the bastard were alive to see it.

  Drake had a network of shifters hidden in all levels of human society. In some ways, Drake was a real asset to shifters. He wasn’t wrong in his belief that the HEV virus would keep the WSSO from spreading the SEV. But using the HEV, killing thousands of innocent humans in those two towns, was too heinous to forgive. Drake had gone too far.

  “That’s why you’re here? To take Kate’s place?” Hayden asked.

  “It was the only way I could convince her to remain with
our pack. She wasn’t listening to me or Damien. Your cousin wasn’t raised in a pack. She doesn’t exactly know how to listen to an alpha.”

  “You mean she’s stubborn,” Hayden said, not even bothering to hide his laugh.

  “You think it’s funny? I love your cousin to death, Hayden, but she’s got that Novak gene.”

  “She’s not crazy,” shot back fast.

  “Not that one. The one where she’s attracted to danger. She lives on the edge and—”

  “And you find yourself having to pull her back too often.”

  “Exactly. You’re lucky you don’t have to worry about that with Mila.”

  Mila? No, his Mila wasn’t a risk taker, not like Kate. Mila simply wanted to be seen for who she was, not seen as a weak shifter. The more Hayden learned about her life, the more he understood why she had lied.

  Sorrow, devastation, pain. The emotions he had seen in her had been genuine. She had never used him, had never intended to, and he had let her walk away. No, he had thrown her away instead of trying to understand why she had lied. Worse, he had sensed trouble, and he’d still let her return to Aloe’s house alone. It didn’t matter that Lars hadn’t been a threat or that she’s had a bodyguard shadowing her. Hayden hadn’t trusted his wolf or his own instincts.

  She’d been stolen by a shifter who’d beat her, maybe even kill her, all because Hayden couldn’t forgive her when she had needed it. Yet Hayden forgave Drake over and over again. Unlike Mila, Drake chose to hurt people, and yet Hayden had fought for Drake. He should have fought for Mila. God, he hoped Damien would find her in time.

  “I wasn’t talking about your breakup,” Callen added. Hayden had been too silent. Callen had always been the quiet one, and here he was trying to engage Hayden in conversation. When had their lives flipped?

  “She’ll be fine. Damien will see to it,” Callen added.

  “I should have been the one to go after her.”